Thursday, March 08, 2012

‘Super’ TuesdayRomney seems to have the nomination, and, in my opinion, the election (regular readers know: economic depression + white guilt only gets you one win = adios, Big Zero Obama), but we didn’t do half bad despite not winning any primaries so far. I don’t dislike him for the reasons the chattering class does (‘he’s so white’, conventionally handsome, personally old-fashioned and successful; the president’s religion shouldn’t matter unless you can prove it won’t obey the Constitution) but because he’s only pro-war, pro-state business as usual (so in those senses, he might as well be a robot or an actor).

PA primary, Paul. (Reason for being Republican besides liking borough and county Republican politics.) November, one of these: write in Paul, vote third-party/independent Paul, vote Libertarian Party (which I’ve done on and off since ’92; I might re-up) or stay home as I did for my first time in ’08.

His ambition is to accomplish three things. First advance the libertarian cause and lay the groundwork for an ideological revolution that will profoundly reshape the GOP. Like Moses he knows he is unlikely to live to see the promised land. But he has lead the faithful to it. This is a battle that will be waged over many elections. The next generation is much more libertarian and they will be the future of the Republican Party if Ron Paul is successful. Secondly, in the near term he wants a voice in the platform committee and a speaking slot at the convention. If he has enough delegates he could reasonably expect that. And lastly if there is a brokered convention (still unlikely but not beyond the realm of possibility) he may play a role in naming the GOP nominee.

Take Virginia, a state where the party establishment pretty much rigged the election for Romney by making it as hard as possible for candidates to get on the ballot, and then prohibited write-in candidates, and then topped it off by requiring a loyalty oath from all voters that they would support the nominee of the party in the general election.

That’s wrong. Is it even enforceable? With that coercion, in VA I wouldn’t be a Republican.